the ’Zine

Harmonix Community Team on the Road at the MTV Movie Awards

June 11, 2009 by HMXPope

Filed under: Rock Band on the Road / Tags: e3 / 1 comment

On Sunday, May 31, HMXSean, HMXSteph, HMXKat, and I  headed out to the annual MTV Movie Awards at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Our job: man the Rock Band 2 stage on the red carpet. Our spot was prime real estate right at the end of the carpet at the entrance to the Gibson Amphitheatre, where the show was held.

Next to our stage was a small area with The Beatles: Rock Band backdrops. Here celebs would be interviewed by VH1 about their first memories of The Beatles, and what the band had meant to them. Totally cool. What this meant for us, though, was that we would have to stop mid-song throughout the day so they could get good sound for the interviews. Rock and roll!

Our stage didn't have a canopy over it and the California sun came out hot and heavy just as we got there. Luckily this was Day 1 of my "hatsperiment" so I was properly covered. There also was a live webcam from MTV.com right on us, with microphone, so we had to be ever-mindful to keep things classy. Not that we're ever not classy. HMXSean has a walk-in humidor in his bungalow. We're talking class all the way on the Community Team, guys.

This was a new experience for me, the whole celebrity parade thing. It was surreal and overwhelming. Over the course of the day we saw the likes of Chris Isaac (with his dog, and his ever-present handsomeness), Ron "Hellboy" Perlman, Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Jon Voight, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, and many more. The majority of them didn't have the time by reaching the end of the carpet to play with us, but we tried! HMXSteph and I shared a looooooong eye-contact-lock with one Billy Zane, in hopes that would bring him over to our stage to play, but that didn't happen.

We did get a couple cast members of tween smash, Twilight, to come up and play with us. Michael Welch and Christian Serratos, who played Mike Newton and Angela Weber, respectively, in the film. They were really fun people. While we played, screaming tween fans broke their arms and legs through the 8 foot tall shrubbery wall protecting us from the outside world. It was like a tween zombie movie. I was as much frightened as I was amused. Those kids can't get enough of Twilight!

Round about this time Kings of Leon walked past the stage and HMXKat lost it. She was inconsolable for hours, nay days, after this event. I don't know exactly where Leon is, but accordion to HMXKat, it is gorgeous.

Miley Cyrus came by really late, and she really wanted to play with us, but her handlers wouldn't let her. Biggest missed opportunity in my life. Soon after this, the show started and the red carpet closed down.

Fun afternoon.

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Check out more of the 2009 Harmonix E3 recaps!

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